System and method for online real-time multi-object tracking

ABSTRACT

A system and method for online real-time multi-object tracking is disclosed. A particular embodiment can be configured to: receive image frame data from at least one camera associated with an autonomous vehicle; generate similarity data corresponding to a similarity between object data in a previous image frame compared with object detection results from a current image frame; use the similarity data to generate data association results corresponding to a best matching between the object data in the previous image frame and the object detection results from the current image frame; cause state transitions in finite state machines for each object according to the data association results; and provide as an output object tracking output data corresponding to the states of the finite state machines for each object.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever. The following notice applies to the disclosure hereinand to the drawings that form a part of this document: Copyright2016-2018, TuSimple, All Rights Reserved.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent document pertains generally to tools (systems, apparatuses,methodologies, computer program products, etc.) for image processing,object tracking, vehicle control systems, and autonomous drivingsystems, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to asystem and method for online real-time multi-object tracking.

BACKGROUND

Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) is a popular topic in computer vision thathas received lots of attention over past years in both research andindustry. MOT has a variety of applications in security andsurveillance, video communication, and self-driving or autonomousvehicles.

Multi-object tracking can be divided into two categories: online MOT andoffline MOT. The difference between these two kinds of tracking is thatonline tracking can only use the information of previous image framesfor inference, while offline tracking can use the information of a wholevideo sequence. Although offline tracking can perform much better thanonline tracking, in some scenarios such as self-driving cars, onlyonline tracking can be used; because, the latter image frames cannot beused to perform inference analysis for the current image frame.

Recently, some online MOT systems have achieved state-of-the-artperformance by using deep learning methods, such as Convolutional NeuralNetworks (CNN) and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM). However, all thesemethods cannot achieve real-time speed while maintaining highperformance. Moreover, other purported real-time online MOT systems,such as those using only Kalman filters or a Markov Decision Process(MDP), also cannot achieve enough performance to be used in practice.Therefore, an improved real-time online MOT system with betterperformance is needed.

SUMMARY

A system and method for online real-time multi-object tracking aredisclosed. In various example embodiments described herein, we introducean online real-time multi-object tracking system, which achievesstate-of-the-art performance at a real-time speed of over 30 frames persecond (FPS). The example system and method for online real-timemulti-object tracking as disclosed herein can provide an onlinereal-time MOT method, where each object is modeled by a finite statemachine (FSM). Matching objects among image frames in a video feed canbe considered as a transition in the finite state machine. Additionally,the various example embodiments can also extract motion features andappearance features for each object to improve tracking performance.Moreover, a Kalman filter can be used to reduce the noise from theresults of the object detection.

In the example embodiment, each object in a video feed is modeled by afinite state machine, and the whole tracking process is divided intofour stages: 1) similarity calculation, 2) data association, 3) statetransition, and 4) post processing. In the first stage, the similaritybetween an object template or previous object data and an objectdetection result is calculated. Data indicative of this similarity isused for data association in the second stage. The data association ofthe second stage can use the similarity data to find the optimal or bestmatching between previous object data and the object detection resultsin the current image frame. Then, each object transitions its stateaccording to the results of the data association. Finally, a postprocessing operation is used to smooth the bounding boxes for eachobject in the final tracking output.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not byway of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example ecosystem in which anin-vehicle image processing module of an example embodiment can beimplemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates a single object modeled by a finite state machine,and a method used in an example embodiment to perform multi-objecttracking;

FIG. 3 is an operational flow diagram illustrating an example embodimentof a system and method for online real-time multi-object tracking;

FIG. 4 illustrates components of the system for online real-timemulti-object tracking of an example embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a process flow diagram illustrating an example embodiment of asystem and method for online real-time multi-object tracking; and

FIG. 6 shows a diagrammatic representation of machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions whenexecuted may cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the various embodiments. It will be evident, however,to one of ordinary skill in the art that the various embodiments may bepracticed without these specific details.

As described in various example embodiments, a system and method foronline real-time multi-object tracking are described herein. An exampleembodiment disclosed herein can be used in the context of an in-vehiclecontrol system 150 in a vehicle ecosystem 101. In one exampleembodiment, an in-vehicle control system 150 with a real-timemulti-object tracking module 200 resident in a vehicle 105 can beconfigured like the architecture and ecosystem 101 illustrated inFIG. 1. However, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in theart that the real-time multi-object tracking module 200 described andclaimed herein can be implemented, configured, and used in a variety ofother applications and systems as well.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram illustrates an exampleecosystem 101 in which an in-vehicle control system 150 and a real-timemulti-object tracking module 200 of an example embodiment can beimplemented. These components are described in more detail below.Ecosystem 101 includes a variety of systems and components that cangenerate and/or deliver one or more sources of information/data andrelated services to the in-vehicle control system 150 and the real-timemulti-object tracking module 200, which can be installed in the vehicle105. For example, a camera installed in the vehicle 105, as one of thedevices of vehicle subsystems 140, can generate image and timing data(e.g., a video feed) that can be received by the in-vehicle controlsystem 150. One or more of the cameras installed in the vehicle 105 canbe forward-facing or laterally-facing or oriented to capture images on aside of the vehicle 105. The in-vehicle control system 150 and thereal-time multi-object tracking module 200 executing therein can receivethis image and timing data or video feed input. As described in moredetail below, the real-time multi-object tracking module 200 can processthe image input and extract object features, which can be used by anautonomous vehicle control subsystem, as another one of the subsystemsof vehicle subsystems 140. The autonomous vehicle control subsystem, forexample, can use the real-time extracted object features to safely andefficiently navigate and control the vehicle 105 through a real worlddriving environment while avoiding obstacles and safely controlling thevehicle.

In an example embodiment as described herein, the in-vehicle controlsystem 150 can be in data communication with a plurality of vehiclesubsystems 140, all of which can be resident in a user's vehicle 105. Avehicle subsystem interface 141 is provided to facilitate datacommunication between the in-vehicle control system 150 and theplurality of vehicle subsystems 140. The in-vehicle control system 150can be configured to include a data processor 171 to execute thereal-time multi-object tracking module 200 for processing image datareceived from one or more of the vehicle subsystems 140. The dataprocessor 171 can be combined with a data storage device 172 as part ofa computing system 170 in the in-vehicle control system 150. The datastorage device 172 can be used to store data, processing parameters, anddata processing instructions. A processing module interface 165 can beprovided to facilitate data communications between the data processor171 and the real-time multi-object tracking module 200. In variousexample embodiments, a plurality of processing modules, configuredsimilarly to real-time multi-object tracking module 200, can be providedfor execution by data processor 171. As shown by the dashed lines inFIG. 1, the real-time multi-object tracking module 200 can be integratedinto the in-vehicle control system 150, optionally downloaded to thein-vehicle control system 150, or deployed separately from thein-vehicle control system 150.

The in-vehicle control system 150 can be configured to receive ortransmit data from/to a wide-area network 120 and network resources 122connected thereto. An in-vehicle web-enabled device 130 and/or a usermobile device 132 can be used to communicate via network 120. Aweb-enabled device interface 131 can be used by the in-vehicle controlsystem 150 to facilitate data communication between the in-vehiclecontrol system 150 and the network 120 via the in-vehicle web-enableddevice 130. Similarly, a user mobile device interface 133 can be used bythe in-vehicle control system 150 to facilitate data communicationbetween the in-vehicle control system 150 and the network 120 via theuser mobile device 132. In this manner, the in-vehicle control system150 can obtain real-time access to network resources 122 via network120. The network resources 122 can be used to obtain processing modulesfor execution by data processor 171, data content to train internalneural networks, system parameters, or other data.

The ecosystem 101 can include a wide area data network 120. The network120 represents one or more conventional wide area data networks, such asthe Internet, a cellular telephone network, satellite network, pagernetwork, a wireless broadcast network, gaming network, WiFi network,peer-to-peer network, Voice over IP (VoIP) network, etc. One or more ofthese networks 120 can be used to connect a user or client system withnetwork resources 122, such as websites, servers, central control sites,or the like. The network resources 122 can generate and/or distributedata, which can be received in vehicle 105 via in-vehicle web-enableddevices 130 or user mobile devices 132. The network resources 122 canalso host network cloud services, which can support the functionalityused to compute or assist in processing image input or image inputanalysis. Antennas can serve to connect the in-vehicle control system150 and the real-time multi-object tracking module 200 with the datanetwork 120 via cellular, satellite, radio, or other conventional signalreception mechanisms. Such cellular data networks are currentlyavailable (e.g., Verizon™, AT&T™, T-Mobile™, etc.). Such satellite-baseddata or content networks are also currently available (e.g., SiriusXM™,HughesNet™, etc.). The conventional broadcast networks, such as AM/FMradio networks, pager networks, UHF networks, gaming networks, WiFinetworks, peer-to-peer networks, Voice over IP (VoIP) networks, and thelike are also well-known. Thus, as described in more detail below, thein-vehicle control system 150 and the real-time multi-object trackingmodule 200 can receive web-based data or content via an in-vehicleweb-enabled device interface 131, which can be used to connect with thein-vehicle web-enabled device receiver 130 and network 120. In thismanner, the in-vehicle control system 150 and the real-time multi-objecttracking module 200 can support a variety of network-connectablein-vehicle devices and systems from within a vehicle 105.

As shown in FIG. 1, the in-vehicle control system 150 and the real-timemulti-object tracking module 200 can also receive data, image processingcontrol parameters, and training content from user mobile devices 132,which can be located inside or proximately to the vehicle 105. The usermobile devices 132 can represent standard mobile devices, such ascellular phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDA's), MP3players, tablet computing devices (e.g., iPad™), laptop computers, CDplayers, and other mobile devices, which can produce, receive, and/ordeliver data, image processing control parameters, and content for thein-vehicle control system 150 and the real-time multi-object trackingmodule 200. As shown in FIG. 1, the mobile devices 132 can also be indata communication with the network cloud 120. The mobile devices 132can source data and content from internal memory components of themobile devices 132 themselves or from network resources 122 via network120. Additionally, mobile devices 132 can themselves include a GPS datareceiver, accelerometers, WiFi triangulation, or other geo-locationsensors or components in the mobile device, which can be used todetermine the real-time geo-location of the user (via the mobile device)at any moment in time. In any case, the in-vehicle control system 150and the real-time multi-object tracking module 200 can receive data fromthe mobile devices 132 as shown in FIG. 1.

Referring still to FIG. 1, the example embodiment of ecosystem 101 caninclude vehicle operational subsystems 140. For embodiments that areimplemented in a vehicle 105, many standard vehicles include operationalsubsystems, such as electronic control units (ECUs), supportingmonitoring/control subsystems for the engine, brakes, transmission,electrical system, emissions system, interior environment, and the like.For example, data signals communicated from the vehicle operationalsubsystems 140 (e.g., ECUs of the vehicle 105) to the in-vehicle controlsystem 150 via vehicle subsystem interface 141 may include informationabout the state of one or more of the components or subsystems of thevehicle 105. In particular, the data signals, which can be communicatedfrom the vehicle operational subsystems 140 to a Controller Area Network(CAN) bus of the vehicle 105, can be received and processed by thein-vehicle control system 150 via vehicle subsystem interface 141.Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein can be used withsubstantially any mechanized system that uses a CAN bus or similar datacommunications bus as defined herein, including, but not limited to,industrial equipment, boats, trucks, machinery, or automobiles; thus,the term “vehicle” as used herein can include any such mechanizedsystems. Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein canalso be used with any systems employing some form of network datacommunications; however, such network communications are not required.

Referring still to FIG. 1, the example embodiment of ecosystem 101, andthe vehicle operational subsystems 140 therein, can include a variety ofvehicle subsystems in support of the operation of vehicle 105. Ingeneral, the vehicle 105 may take the form of a car, truck, motorcycle,bus, boat, airplane, helicopter, lawn mower, earth mover, snowmobile,aircraft, recreational vehicle, amusement park vehicle, farm equipment,construction equipment, tram, golf cart, train, and trolley, forexample. Other vehicles are possible as well. The vehicle 105 may beconfigured to operate fully or partially in an autonomous mode. Forexample, the vehicle 105 may control itself while in the autonomousmode, and may be operable to determine a current state of the vehicleand its environment, determine a predicted behavior of at least oneother vehicle in the environment, determine a confidence level that maycorrespond to a likelihood of the at least one other vehicle to performthe predicted behavior, and control the vehicle 105 based on thedetermined information. While in autonomous mode, the vehicle 105 may beconfigured to operate without human interaction.

The vehicle 105 may include various vehicle subsystems such as a vehicledrive subsystem 142, vehicle sensor subsystem 144, vehicle controlsubsystem 146, and occupant interface subsystem 148. As described above,the vehicle 105 may also include the in-vehicle control system 150, thecomputing system 170, and the real-time multi-object tracking module200. The vehicle 105 may include more or fewer subsystems and eachsubsystem could include multiple elements. Further, each of thesubsystems and elements of vehicle 105 could be interconnected. Thus,one or more of the described functions of the vehicle 105 may be dividedup into additional functional or physical components or combined intofewer functional or physical components. In some further examples,additional functional and physical components may be added to theexamples illustrated by FIG. 1.

The vehicle drive subsystem 142 may include components operable toprovide powered motion for the vehicle 105. In an example embodiment,the vehicle drive subsystem 142 may include an engine or motor,wheels/tires, a transmission, an electrical subsystem, and a powersource. The engine or motor may be any combination of an internalcombustion engine, an electric motor, steam engine, fuel cell engine,propane engine, or other types of engines or motors. In some exampleembodiments, the engine may be configured to convert a power source intomechanical energy. In some example embodiments, the vehicle drivesubsystem 142 may include multiple types of engines or motors. Forinstance, a gas-electric hybrid car could include a gasoline engine andan electric motor. Other examples are possible.

The wheels of the vehicle 105 may be standard tires. The wheels of thevehicle 105 may be configured in various formats, including a unicycle,bicycle, tricycle, or a four-wheel format, such as on a car or a truck,for example. Other wheel geometries are possible, such as thoseincluding six or more wheels. Any combination of the wheels of vehicle105 may be operable to rotate differentially with respect to otherwheels. The wheels may represent at least one wheel that is fixedlyattached to the transmission and at least one tire coupled to a rim ofthe wheel that could make contact with the driving surface. The wheelsmay include a combination of metal and rubber, or another combination ofmaterials. The transmission may include elements that are operable totransmit mechanical power from the engine to the wheels. For thispurpose, the transmission could include a gearbox, a clutch, adifferential, and drive shafts. The transmission may include otherelements as well. The drive shafts may include one or more axles thatcould be coupled to one or more wheels. The electrical system mayinclude elements that are operable to transfer and control electricalsignals in the vehicle 105. These electrical signals can be used toactivate lights, servos, electrical motors, and other electricallydriven or controlled devices of the vehicle 105. The power source mayrepresent a source of energy that may, in full or in part, power theengine or motor. That is, the engine or motor could be configured toconvert the power source into mechanical energy. Examples of powersources include gasoline, diesel, other petroleum-based fuels, propane,other compressed gas-based fuels, ethanol, fuel cell, solar panels,batteries, and other sources of electrical power. The power source couldadditionally or alternatively include any combination of fuel tanks,batteries, capacitors, or flywheels. The power source may also provideenergy for other subsystems of the vehicle 105.

The vehicle sensor subsystem 144 may include a number of sensorsconfigured to sense information about an environment or condition of thevehicle 105. For example, the vehicle sensor subsystem 144 may includean inertial measurement unit (IMU), a Global Positioning System (GPS)transceiver, a RADAR unit, a laser range finder/LIDAR unit, and one ormore cameras or image capture devices. The vehicle sensor subsystem 144may also include sensors configured to monitor internal systems of thevehicle 105 (e.g., an 02 monitor, a fuel gauge, an engine oiltemperature). Other sensors are possible as well. One or more of thesensors included in the vehicle sensor subsystem 144 may be configuredto be actuated separately or collectively in order to modify a position,an orientation, or both, of the one or more sensors.

The IMU may include any combination of sensors (e.g., accelerometers andgyroscopes) configured to sense position and orientation changes of thevehicle 105 based on inertial acceleration. The GPS transceiver may beany sensor configured to estimate a geographic location of the vehicle105. For this purpose, the GPS transceiver may include areceiver/transmitter operable to provide information regarding theposition of the vehicle 105 with respect to the Earth. The RADAR unitmay represent a system that utilizes radio signals to sense objectswithin the local environment of the vehicle 105. In some embodiments, inaddition to sensing the objects, the RADAR unit may additionally beconfigured to sense the speed and the heading of the objects proximateto the vehicle 105. The laser range finder or LIDAR unit may be anysensor configured to sense objects in the environment in which thevehicle 105 is located using lasers. In an example embodiment, the laserrange finder/LIDAR unit may include one or more laser sources, a laserscanner, and one or more detectors, among other system components. Thelaser range finder/LIDAR unit could be configured to operate in acoherent (e.g., using heterodyne detection) or an incoherent detectionmode. The cameras may include one or more devices configured to capturea plurality of images of the environment of the vehicle 105. The camerasmay be still image cameras or motion video cameras.

The vehicle control system 146 may be configured to control operation ofthe vehicle 105 and its components. Accordingly, the vehicle controlsystem 146 may include various elements such as a steering unit, athrottle, a brake unit, a navigation unit, and an autonomous controlunit.

The steering unit may represent any combination of mechanisms that maybe operable to adjust the heading of vehicle 105. The throttle may beconfigured to control, for instance, the operating speed of the engineand, in turn, control the speed of the vehicle 105. The brake unit caninclude any combination of mechanisms configured to decelerate thevehicle 105. The brake unit can use friction to slow the wheels in astandard manner. In other embodiments, the brake unit may convert thekinetic energy of the wheels to electric current. The brake unit maytake other forms as well. The navigation unit may be any systemconfigured to determine a driving path or route for the vehicle 105. Thenavigation unit may additionally be configured to update the drivingpath dynamically while the vehicle 105 is in operation. In someembodiments, the navigation unit may be configured to incorporate datafrom the real-time multi-object tracking module 200, the GPStransceiver, and one or more predetermined maps so as to determine thedriving path for the vehicle 105. The autonomous control unit mayrepresent a control system configured to identify, evaluate, and avoidor otherwise negotiate potential obstacles in the environment of thevehicle 105. In general, the autonomous control unit may be configuredto control the vehicle 105 for operation without a driver or to providedriver assistance in controlling the vehicle 105. In some embodiments,the autonomous control unit may be configured to incorporate data fromthe real-time multi-object tracking module 200, the GPS transceiver, theRADAR, the LIDAR, the cameras, and other vehicle subsystems to determinethe driving path or trajectory for the vehicle 105. The vehicle controlsystem 146 may additionally or alternatively include components otherthan those shown and described.

Occupant interface subsystems 148 may be configured to allow interactionbetween the vehicle 105 and external sensors, other vehicles, othercomputer systems, and/or an occupant or user of vehicle 105. Forexample, the occupant interface subsystems 148 may include standardvisual display devices (e.g., plasma displays, liquid crystal displays(LCDs), touchscreen displays, heads-up displays, or the like), speakersor other audio output devices, microphones or other audio input devices,navigation interfaces, and interfaces for controlling the internalenvironment (e.g., temperature, fan, etc.) of the vehicle 105.

In an example embodiment, the occupant interface subsystems 148 mayprovide, for instance, means for a user/occupant of the vehicle 105 tointeract with the other vehicle subsystems. The visual display devicesmay provide information to a user of the vehicle 105. The user interfacedevices can also be operable to accept input from the user via atouchscreen. The touchscreen may be configured to sense at least one ofa position and a movement of a user's finger via capacitive sensing,resistance sensing, or a surface acoustic wave process, among otherpossibilities. The touchscreen may be capable of sensing finger movementin a direction parallel or planar to the touchscreen surface, in adirection normal to the touchscreen surface, or both, and may also becapable of sensing a level of pressure applied to the touchscreensurface. The touchscreen may be formed of one or more translucent ortransparent insulating layers and one or more translucent or transparentconducting layers. The touchscreen may take other forms as well.

In other instances, the occupant interface subsystems 148 may providemeans for the vehicle 105 to communicate with devices within itsenvironment. The microphone may be configured to receive audio (e.g., avoice command or other audio input) from a user of the vehicle 105.Similarly, the speakers may be configured to output audio to a user ofthe vehicle 105. In one example embodiment, the occupant interfacesubsystems 148 may be configured to wirelessly communicate with one ormore devices directly or via a communication network. For example, awireless communication system could use 3G cellular communication, suchas CDMA, EVDO, GSM/GPRS, or 4G cellular communication, such as WiMAX orLTE. Alternatively, the wireless communication system may communicatewith a wireless local area network (WLAN), for example, using WIFI®. Insome embodiments, the wireless communication system 146 may communicatedirectly with a device, for example, using an infrared link, BLUETOOTH®,or ZIGBEE®. Other wireless protocols, such as various vehicularcommunication systems, are possible within the context of thedisclosure. For example, the wireless communication system may includeone or more dedicated short range communications (DSRC) devices that mayinclude public or private data communications between vehicles and/orroadside stations.

Many or all of the functions of the vehicle 105 can be controlled by thecomputing system 170. The computing system 170 may include at least onedata processor 171 (which can include at least one microprocessor) thatexecutes processing instructions stored in a non-transitory computerreadable medium, such as the data storage device 172. The computingsystem 170 may also represent a plurality of computing devices that mayserve to control individual components or subsystems of the vehicle 105in a distributed fashion. In some embodiments, the data storage device172 may contain processing instructions (e.g., program logic) executableby the data processor 171 to perform various functions of the vehicle105, including those described herein in connection with the drawings.The data storage device 172 may contain additional instructions as well,including instructions to transmit data to, receive data from, interactwith, or control one or more of the vehicle drive subsystem 142, thevehicle sensor subsystem 144, the vehicle control subsystem 146, and theoccupant interface subsystems 148.

In addition to the processing instructions, the data storage device 172may store data such as image processing parameters, training data,roadway maps, and path information, among other information. Suchinformation may be used by the vehicle 105 and the computing system 170during the operation of the vehicle 105 in the autonomous,semi-autonomous, and/or manual modes.

The vehicle 105 may include a user interface for providing informationto or receiving input from a user or occupant of the vehicle 105. Theuser interface may control or enable control of the content and thelayout of interactive images that may be displayed on a display device.Further, the user interface may include one or more input/output deviceswithin the set of occupant interface subsystems 148, such as the displaydevice, the speakers, the microphones, or a wireless communicationsystem.

The computing system 170 may control the function of the vehicle 105based on inputs received from various vehicle subsystems (e.g., thevehicle drive subsystem 142, the vehicle sensor subsystem 144, and thevehicle control subsystem 146), as well as from the occupant interfacesubsystem 148. For example, the computing system 170 may use input fromthe vehicle control system 146 in order to control the steering unit toavoid an obstacle detected by the vehicle sensor subsystem 144 and thereal-time multi-object tracking module 200, move in a controlled manner,or follow a path or trajectory based on output generated by thereal-time multi-object tracking module 200. In an example embodiment,the computing system 170 can be operable to provide control over manyaspects of the vehicle 105 and its subsystems.

Although FIG. 1 shows various components of vehicle 105, e.g., vehiclesubsystems 140, computing system 170, data storage device 172, andreal-time multi-object tracking module 200, as being integrated into thevehicle 105, one or more of these components could be mounted orassociated separately from the vehicle 105. For example, data storagedevice 172 could, in part or in full, exist separate from the vehicle105. Thus, the vehicle 105 could be provided in the form of deviceelements that may be located separately or together. The device elementsthat make up vehicle 105 could be communicatively coupled together in awired or wireless fashion.

Additionally, other data and/or content (denoted herein as ancillarydata) can be obtained from local and/or remote sources by the in-vehiclecontrol system 150 as described above. The ancillary data can be used toaugment, modify, or train the operation of the real-time multi-objecttracking module 200 based on a variety of factors including, the contextin which the user is operating the vehicle (e.g., the location of thevehicle, the specified destination, direction of travel, speed, the timeof day, the status of the vehicle, etc.), and a variety of other dataobtainable from the variety of sources, local and remote, as describedherein.

In a particular embodiment, the in-vehicle control system 150 and thereal-time multi-object tracking module 200 can be implemented asin-vehicle components of vehicle 105. In various example embodiments,the in-vehicle control system 150 and the real-time multi-objecttracking module 200 in data communication therewith can be implementedas integrated components or as separate components. In an exampleembodiment, the software components of the in-vehicle control system 150and/or the real-time multi-object tracking module 200 can be dynamicallyupgraded, modified, and/or augmented by use of the data connection withthe mobile devices 132 and/or the network resources 122 via network 120.The in-vehicle control system 150 can periodically query a mobile device132 or a network resource 122 for updates or updates can be pushed tothe in-vehicle control system 150.

System and Method for Online Real-Time Multi-Object Tracking

A system and method for online real-time multi-object tracking aredisclosed. In various example embodiments described herein, we introducean online real-time multi-object tracking system, which achievesstate-of-the-art performance at a real-time speed of over 30 frames persecond (FPS). The example system and method for online real-timemulti-object tracking as disclosed herein can provide an onlinereal-time MOT method, where each object is modeled by a finite statemachine (FSM). Matching objects among image frames in a video feed canbe considered as a transition in the finite state machine. Additionally,the various example embodiments can also extract motion features andappearance features for each object to improve tracking performance.Moreover, a Kalman filter can be used to reduce the noise from theresults of the object detection.

In the example embodiment, each object in a video feed is modeled by afinite state machine, and the whole tracking process is divided intofour stages: 1) similarity calculation, 2) data association, 3) statetransition, and 4) post processing. In the first stage, the similaritybetween an object template or previous object data and an objectdetection result is calculated. Data indicative of this similarity isused for data association in the second stage. The data association ofthe second stage can use the similarity data to find the optimal or bestmatching between previous object data and the object detection resultsin the current image frame. Then, each object transitions its stateaccording to the results of the data association. Finally, a postprocessing operation is used to smooth the bounding boxes for eachobject in the final tracking output.

FIG. 2 illustrates a single object modeled by a finite state machine,and a method used in an example embodiment to perform multi-objecttracking. The example embodiment can be configured to model each singleobject by a finite state machine. This model can be used in the exampleembodiment to perform multi-object tracking as described in more detailbelow. In an example embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, there are fourFSM states for each object: initialized, tracked, lost, and removed.FIG. 2 shows the four states and how they are related to each other.Each state of the example embodiment is described below with referenceto FIG. 2.

Initialized State

A new object detected in the video feed that has never been trackedbefore is set to the initialized state in its finite state machine.Thus, when a new object is detected by image analysis and objectdetection, the new object is initialized in the initialized state as anew tracking object. Because there may be some false positives in thedetection results, it is possible that the new object is a falsepositive object detection. In order to avoid false positive objectdetections, we use a learning based method (such as XGBoost, SupportVector Machine, etc.) to train a classifier (here we call it theinitialization classifier), so that we can judge if the detection resultis a false positive. The features we use to train the initializationclassifier include both vision features and bounding box informationrelated to the detection result. Specifically, given a detection result(e.g., a bounding box position and a confidence score), vision featuressuch as Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) and Scale-InvariantFeature Transform (SIFT) can be extracted from the bounding box of thedetected object. Then, the vision feature can be combined with thedetection confidence score to feed the classifier.

By using the initialization classifier, we can determine whether a newobject detection result is a false positive. If the new object detectionresult is a real object (e.g., not a false positive), the new objectdetection result transitions from the initialized state to the trackedstate (described below). If the new object detection result is not areal object (e.g., a false positive), the new object detection resulttransitions from the initialized state to the removed state (alsodescribed below).

Tracked State

When a new image frame is received, objects currently in the trackedstate need to be processed to determine if the objects currently in thetracked state can remain in the tracked state or should transition tothe lost state. This determination depends on the matching detectionresults from a comparison of a prior image frame with the detectionresults for the new image frame. Specifically, given a new image framefrom the video feed, the example embodiment can match all tracked andlost objects from the prior image frame with the detection results inthe new image frame (this is called data association). As a result ofthis matching or data association process, some previously trackedobjects may be lost in the new image frame. Other previously trackedobjects may continue to be tracked in the current image frame. Otherpreviously lost objects may re-appear to be tracked again. The detailedmatching strategy is described below in connection with the descriptionof the feature extraction and template updating strategies.

Feature Extraction

In an example embodiment, there are two kinds of features used forobject data association: motion feature and appearance feature. Formotion feature, a Kalman filter is set for each object in trackinghistory. When a new image frame is received, the Kalman filter canpredict a bounding box position for an object in the new image frameaccording to the trajectory of the object. Then, the example embodimentcan determine a similarity (or difference) score between the predictedbounding box position for an object by the Kalman filter and theposition of each bounding box for objects detected in the detectionresults for the new image frame. In a tracking system of an exampleembodiment, we use Intersection Over Union (IOU) as the similarityscore; because, IOU can describe the shape similarity between twobounding boxes. This similarity score is considered as the motionfeature or motion similarity of a detected object.

The second part of the feature extraction used in an example embodimentis the appearance feature for each object. The appearance feature is akey feature to distinguish one object from another object. Theappearance feature can be extracted by a pre-trained convolutionalneural network (CNN). In other embodiments, the appearance feature canbe extracted by use of hand-craft features or vision features, such asHOG and SIFT. Different features are suitable for different scenarios orapplications of the technology. As such, the methods used for appearancefeature extraction can vary to obtain the best performance for differentapplications. Once the appearance feature for a current object isextracted, the appearance feature of the object can be used to determinean appearance similarity (or difference) as related to the appearancefeatures of previous objects and prior detection results from priorimage frames.

Template Updating

If a currently detected object is successfully matched with a boundingbox of a previously detected object, the example embodiment can updatethe appearance feature for the current object as its template.Specifically, the example embodiment can obtain the appearance featureextracted from the matching object bounding box and use the extractedappearance feature as the new template of the current object. In theexample embodiment, we do not directly replace the old template with thenew appearance feature; instead, the example embodiment keeps severaltemplates (usually three) for each object that has ever been tracked.

When a template is updated, the example embodiment can set a similaritythreshold and a bounding box confidence threshold. Only appearancefeatures satisfying the following two conditions can be used to updatean old template: First, the similarity score between the appearancefeature for the current object and the old template should be less thanthe similarity threshold. This is because a low similarity score usuallymeans the object has been changed a lot in the current image frame, sothat the template should be updated. Second, the detection bounding boxconfidence level should be higher than the bounding box confidencethreshold. This is because we need to avoid false positives in thedetection results, and a bounding box with a low confidence level ismore likely to be a false positive.

If an appearance feature is selected to be a new template, the exampleembodiment can determine which of the old templates should be replaced.There are several strategies that can be used for this purpose, such asa Least Recent Use (LRU) strategy, or a strategy that just replaces theoldest template in the template pool.

Lost State

Similar to the tracked state, there are three different kinds oftransitions an object can make from the lost state. First, if the objectis successfully matched with a detection result in the current imageframe, the object will transition back to the tracked state from thelost state. Second, if there is no matching for this object, the objectwill remain in the lost state. Third, if the object has remained in thelost state for a number of cycles that is greater than a threshold, theobject transitions from the lost state to the removed state, where theobject is considered to have disappeared.

Because there is no matching detection result for an object in the loststate, the example embodiment does not update the appearance feature(e.g., the template) for these lost objects. However, the exampleembodiment does need to keep predicting the bounding box position by useof the Kalman filter; because, the example embodiment can use the motionfeature for lost objects to perform data association in case the lostobject re-appears in a new image frame. This is called a blind update.

Removed State

In an example embodiment, there are only two ways for an object totransition into the removed state. First, an object in the initializedstate for which a detection result is considered to be a false positivetransitions into the removed state. Second, an object that has remainedin the lost state for too cycles transitions into the removed state andis considered to have disappeared from the camera view.

In various example embodiments, a threshold can be used to determine ifan object has disappeared. In some embodiments, the larger the thresholdis, the higher the tracking performance will be; because, sometimes anobject disappears for a while and then may come back into view again.However, a larger threshold leads to a low tracking speed; because,there are more objects in the lost state and more processing overhead isneeded to perform object matching during the period of data association.As such, there exists a trade-off between performance and speed.

Tracking Process

FIG. 3 is an operational flow diagram 300 illustrating an exampleembodiment of a system and method for online real-time multi-objecttracking. In the example embodiment as described above, each object in avideo feed can be modeled by a finite state machine. Additionally, thetracking process of an example embodiment can be divided into fourstages: 1) similarity calculation, 2) data association, 3) statetransition, and 4) post processing. The tracking process of the exampleembodiment can be used when a new image frame and its correspondingdetection results are received. Each of the stages of the trackingprocess of the example embodiment are described below with reference toFIG. 3.

Similarity Calculation

With reference to block 310 shown in FIG. 3, when a new image frame isreceived from a video feed, the example embodiment is configured todetermine the similarity of each object as related to object detectionresults. As described above, there are two kinds of features used todetermine object similarity in an example embodiment: motion featuresimilarity and appearance feature similarity. In one example embodiment,motion feature similarity is calculated as the IOU of the prediction ofthe Kalman filter and the detected object bounding box position. Theappearance feature similarity is calculated as the Euclidean distancebetween the object template and the appearance feature of the objectdetection result. Because there are several templates retained for eachobject, the example embodiment can be configured to choose one of theseveral object templates to be used for data association. There areseveral strategies that can be used to choose appearance similarity,such as mean or max similarity. Once the similarities for each objecthave been calculated, the similarities can be used for data association(described below) to find matchings between objects and detectionresults.

Data Association

With reference to block 320 shown in FIG. 3, the similarities of allpairs of object and detection results have been determined in thesimilarity calculation stage described above. In the data associationphase, the example embodiment is configured to find the best matchingsbetween objects of previous image frames and detection results from acurrent image frame. In particular, the example embodiment is configuredto find the positions of previously detected objects in the currentimage frame. Because the best matchings require an optimal or bestmatching solution, an example embodiment can use a Hungarian algorithm(which is also called Kuhn-Munkres algorithm or Munkres assignmentalgorithm) to find the best matchings, where the similarity scorescalculated in a last step of the process are considered as costs orweights in the Hungarian algorithm. The use of the Hungarian algorithm,or other best matching process, can identify pairs of matchings betweenobjects and detection results. Then, the example embodiment can filterout those pairs whose similarity score is less than a predefinedthreshold. As a result of the data association process, three kinds ofresults can be obtained: matched pairs of object and detection result332, unmatched objects 334, and unmatched detection results 336. Theseresults can be used to effect state transitions in the finite statemachines for each object as described below.

State Transition

With reference to blocks 330 shown in FIG. 3, after the data associationstage is completed, the example embodiment can use the data associationresults to effect state transitions in the finite state machines foreach object. The example embodiment can also initialize new objects forunmatched detection results. As shown in block 332 of FIG. 3, for eachobject having a matched detection result, the object (or its FSM)transitions to the tracked state. In block 338, the template and theKalman filter for the object is updated for the corresponding detectionresult. As shown in block 334 of FIG. 3, for each unmatched object, theobject (or its FSM) transitions to the lost state if the prior state ofthe object was the tracked state. If the prior state of the object wasthe lost state, the lost object can be processed as described above todetermine if the object should be transitioned to the removed state. Inblock 338, the template and the Kalman filter for the object is updatedby blind update. As shown in block 336 of FIG. 3, for each unmatcheddetection result, the example embodiment can initialize a new object andtransition the new object to the initialized state as described above.In block 338, the template and the Kalman filter for the new object isupdated for the corresponding detection result.

Post Processing

Because almost all related tracking methods directly use the boundingboxes of detection results as the final output for each image frame, anddetection results for each object may be unstable, there may be somevariations in the final output. In order to avoid this problem and makethe final output smoother, some modifications to the detection resultscan be made in the example embodiment. Specifically, we can use theweighted average of the detection result and the prediction of Kalmanfilter as the final tracking output, which can improve the trackingperformance both in benchmark and visualization.

FIG. 4 illustrates components of the system for online real-timemulti-object tracking of an example embodiment. Referring now to FIG. 4,an example embodiment disclosed herein can be used in the context of anonline real-time multi-object tracking system 210 for autonomousvehicles. The online real-time multi-object tracking system 210 can beincluded in or executed by the real-time multi-object tracking module200 as described above. The online real-time multi-object trackingsystem 210 can include a similarity calculation module 212, a dataassociation module 214, a state transition module 216 with correspondingobject finite state machines 217, and a post processing module 218.These modules can be implemented as processing modules, software orfirmware elements, processing instructions, or other processing logicembodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions describedand/or claimed herein. The online real-time multi-object tracking system210 can receive one or more image streams or image frame data sets froma camera or other image source of the autonomous vehicle 105. Asdescribed above, the similarity calculation module 212 can calculate thesimilarity between an object template or previous object data and anobject detection result. Data indicative of this similarity is used fordata association. The data association module 214 can use the similaritydata to find the optimal or best matching between previous object dataand the object detection results in the current image frame. Then, thestate transition module 216 can cause the FSM 217 for each object totransition its state according to the results of the data association.Finally, the post processing module 218 can be used to smooth thebounding boxes for each object in the final object tracking output. Theonline real-time multi-object tracking system 210 can provide as anoutput the object tracking output data 220 generated as described above.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a process flow diagram illustrates an exampleembodiment of a system and method for online real-time multi-objecttracking. The example embodiment can be configured to: receive imageframe data from at least one camera associated with an autonomousvehicle (processing block 1010); generate similarity data correspondingto a similarity between object data in a previous image frame comparedwith object detection results from a current image frame (processingblock 1020); use the similarity data to generate data associationresults corresponding to a best matching between the object data in theprevious image frame and the object detection results from the currentimage frame (processing block 1030); cause state transitions in finitestate machines for each object according to the data association results(processing block 1040); and provide as an output object tracking outputdata corresponding to the states of the finite state machines for eachobject (processing block 1050).

As used herein and unless specified otherwise, the term “mobile device”includes any computing or communications device that can communicatewith the in-vehicle control system 150 and/or the real-time multi-objecttracking module 200 described herein to obtain read or write access todata signals, messages, or content communicated via any mode of datacommunications. In many cases, the mobile device 130 is a handheld,portable device, such as a smart phone, mobile phone, cellulartelephone, tablet computer, laptop computer, display pager, radiofrequency (RF) device, infrared (IR) device, global positioning device(GPS), Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), handheld computers, wearablecomputer, portable game console, other mobile communication and/orcomputing device, or an integrated device combining one or more of thepreceding devices, and the like. Additionally, the mobile device 130 canbe a computing device, personal computer (PC), multiprocessor system,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronic device, networkPC, diagnostics equipment, a system operated by a vehicle 119manufacturer or service technician, and the like, and is not limited toportable devices. The mobile device 130 can receive and process data inany of a variety of data formats. The data format may include or beconfigured to operate with any programming format, protocol, or languageincluding, but not limited to, JavaScript, C++, iOS, Android, etc.

As used herein and unless specified otherwise, the term “networkresource” includes any device, system, or service that can communicatewith the in-vehicle control system 150 and/or the real-time multi-objecttracking module 200 described herein to obtain read or write access todata signals, messages, or content communicated via any mode ofinter-process or networked data communications. In many cases, thenetwork resource 122 is a data network accessible computing platform,including client or server computers, websites, mobile devices,peer-to-peer (P2P) network nodes, and the like. Additionally, thenetwork resource 122 can be a web appliance, a network router, switch,bridge, gateway, diagnostics equipment, a system operated by a vehicle119 manufacturer or service technician, or any machine capable ofexecuting a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a singlemachine is illustrated, the term “machine” can also be taken to includeany collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set(or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein. The network resources 122 may includeany of a variety of providers or processors of network transportabledigital content. Typically, the file format that is employed isExtensible Markup Language (XML), however, the various embodiments arenot so limited, and other file formats may be used. For example, dataformats other than Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)/XML or formats otherthan open/standard data formats can be supported by various embodiments.Any electronic file format, such as Portable Document Format (PDF),audio (e.g., Motion Picture Experts Group Audio Layer 3—MP3, and thelike), video (e.g., MP4, and the like), and any proprietary interchangeformat defined by specific content sites can be supported by the variousembodiments described herein.

The wide area data network 120 (also denoted the network cloud) usedwith the network resources 122 can be configured to couple one computingor communication device with another computing or communication device.The network may be enabled to employ any form of computer readable dataor media for communicating information from one electronic device toanother. The network 120 can include the Internet in addition to otherwide area networks (WANs), cellular telephone networks, metro-areanetworks, local area networks (LANs), other packet-switched networks,circuit-switched networks, direct data connections, such as through auniversal serial bus (USB) or Ethernet port, other forms ofcomputer-readable media, or any combination thereof. The network 120 caninclude the Internet in addition to other wide area networks (WANs),cellular telephone networks, satellite networks, over-the-air broadcastnetworks, AM/FM radio networks, pager networks, UHF networks, otherbroadcast networks, gaming networks, WiFi networks, peer-to-peernetworks, Voice Over IP (VoIP) networks, metro-area networks, local areanetworks (LANs), other packet-switched networks, circuit-switchednetworks, direct data connections, such as through a universal serialbus (USB) or Ethernet port, other forms of computer-readable media, orany combination thereof. On an interconnected set of networks, includingthose based on differing architectures and protocols, a router orgateway can act as a link between networks, enabling messages to be sentbetween computing devices on different networks. Also, communicationlinks within networks can typically include twisted wire pair cabling,USB, Firewire, Ethernet, or coaxial cable, while communication linksbetween networks may utilize analog or digital telephone lines, full orfractional dedicated digital lines including T1, T2, T3, and T4,Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDNs), Digital User Lines (DSLs),wireless links including satellite links, cellular telephone links, orother communication links known to those of ordinary skill in the art.Furthermore, remote computers and other related electronic devices canbe remotely connected to the network via a modem and temporary telephonelink.

The network 120 may further include any of a variety of wirelesssub-networks that may further overlay stand-alone ad-hoc networks, andthe like, to provide an infrastructure-oriented connection. Suchsub-networks may include mesh networks, Wireless LAN (WLAN) networks,cellular networks, and the like. The network may also include anautonomous system of terminals, gateways, routers, and the likeconnected by wireless radio links or wireless transceivers. Theseconnectors may be configured to move freely and randomly and organizethemselves arbitrarily, such that the topology of the network may changerapidly. The network 120 may further employ one or more of a pluralityof standard wireless and/or cellular protocols or access technologiesincluding those set forth herein in connection with network interface712 and network 714 described in the figures herewith.

In a particular embodiment, a mobile device 132 and/or a networkresource 122 may act as a client device enabling a user to access anduse the in-vehicle control system 150 and/or the real-time multi-objecttracking module 200 to interact with one or more components of a vehiclesubsystem. These client devices 132 or 122 may include virtually anycomputing device that is configured to send and receive information overa network, such as network 120 as described herein. Such client devicesmay include mobile devices, such as cellular telephones, smart phones,tablet computers, display pagers, radio frequency (RF) devices, infrared(IR) devices, global positioning devices (GPS), Personal DigitalAssistants (PDAs), handheld computers, wearable computers, gameconsoles, integrated devices combining one or more of the precedingdevices, and the like. The client devices may also include othercomputing devices, such as personal computers (PCs), multiprocessorsystems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics,network PC's, and the like. As such, client devices may range widely interms of capabilities and features. For example, a client deviceconfigured as a cell phone may have a numeric keypad and a few lines ofmonochrome LCD display on which only text may be displayed. In anotherexample, a web-enabled client device may have a touch sensitive screen,a stylus, and a color LCD display screen in which both text and graphicsmay be displayed. Moreover, the web-enabled client device may include abrowser application enabled to receive and to send wireless applicationprotocol messages (WAP), and/or wired application messages, and thelike. In one embodiment, the browser application is enabled to employHyperText Markup Language (HTML), Dynamic HTML, Handheld Device MarkupLanguage (HDML), Wireless Markup Language (WML), WMLScript, JavaScript™,EXtensible HTML (xHTML), Compact HTML (CHTML), and the like, to displayand send a message with relevant information.

The client devices may also include at least one client application thatis configured to receive content or messages from another computingdevice via a network transmission. The client application may include acapability to provide and receive textual content, graphical content,video content, audio content, alerts, messages, notifications, and thelike. Moreover, the client devices may be further configured tocommunicate and/or receive a message, such as through a Short MessageService (SMS), direct messaging (e.g., Twitter), email, MultimediaMessage Service (MMS), instant messaging (IM), internet relay chat(IRC), mIRC, Jabber, Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS), text messaging,Smart Messaging, Over the Air (OTA) messaging, or the like, betweenanother computing device, and the like. The client devices may alsoinclude a wireless application device on which a client application isconfigured to enable a user of the device to send and receiveinformation to/from network resources wirelessly via the network.

The in-vehicle control system 150 and/or the real-time multi-objecttracking module 200 can be implemented using systems that enhance thesecurity of the execution environment, thereby improving security andreducing the possibility that the in-vehicle control system 150 and/orthe real-time multi-object tracking module 200 and the related servicescould be compromised by viruses or malware. For example, the in-vehiclecontrol system 150 and/or the real-time multi-object tracking module 200can be implemented using a Trusted Execution Environment, which canensure that sensitive data is stored, processed, and communicated in asecure way.

FIG. 6 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computing system 700 within which a set of instructions whenexecuted and/or processing logic when activated may cause the machine toperform any one or more of the methodologies described and/or claimedherein. In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalonedevice or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In anetworked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of aserver or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as apeer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. Themachine may be a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputing system, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellulartelephone, a smartphone, a web appliance, a set-top box (STB), a networkrouter, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set ofinstructions (sequential or otherwise) or activating processing logicthat specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only asingle machine is illustrated, the term “machine” can also be taken toinclude any collection of machines that individually or jointly executea set (or multiple sets) of instructions or processing logic to performany one or more of the methodologies described and/or claimed herein.

The example computing system 700 can include a data processor 702 (e.g.,a System-on-a-Chip (SoC), general processing core, graphics core, andoptionally other processing logic) and a memory 704, which cancommunicate with each other via a bus or other data transfer system 706.The mobile computing and/or communication system 700 may further includevarious input/output (I/O) devices and/or interfaces 710, such as atouchscreen display, an audio jack, a voice interface, and optionally anetwork interface 712. In an example embodiment, the network interface712 can include one or more radio transceivers configured forcompatibility with any one or more standard wireless and/or cellularprotocols or access technologies (e.g., 2nd (2G), 2.5, 3rd (3G), 4th(4G) generation, and future generation radio access for cellularsystems, Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), General PacketRadio Services (GPRS), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), WidebandCode Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), LTE, CDMA2000, WLAN, WirelessRouter (WR) mesh, and the like). Network interface 712 may also beconfigured for use with various other wired and/or wirelesscommunication protocols, including TCP/IP, UDP, SIP, SMS, RTP, WAP,CDMA, TDMA, UMTS, UWB, WiFi, WiMax, Bluetooth©, IEEE 802.11x, and thelike. In essence, network interface 712 may include or support virtuallyany wired and/or wireless communication and data processing mechanismsby which information/data may travel between a computing system 700 andanother computing or communication system via network 714.

The memory 704 can represent a machine-readable medium on which isstored one or more sets of instructions, software, firmware, or otherprocessing logic (e.g., logic 708) embodying any one or more of themethodologies or functions described and/or claimed herein. The logic708, or a portion thereof, may also reside, completely or at leastpartially within the processor 702 during execution thereof by themobile computing and/or communication system 700. As such, the memory704 and the processor 702 may also constitute machine-readable media.The logic 708, or a portion thereof, may also be configured asprocessing logic or logic, at least a portion of which is partiallyimplemented in hardware. The logic 708, or a portion thereof, mayfurther be transmitted or received over a network 714 via the networkinterface 712. While the machine-readable medium of an exampleembodiment can be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium”should be taken to include a single non-transitory medium or multiplenon-transitory media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database,and/or associated caches and computing systems) that store the one ormore sets of instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” can alsobe taken to include any non-transitory medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by themachine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the various embodiments, or that is capable of storing,encoding or carrying data structures utilized by or associated with sucha set of instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” canaccordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-statememories, optical media, and magnetic media.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader toquickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It issubmitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpretor limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in theforegoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features aregrouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamliningthe disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than allfeatures of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claimsare hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as a separate embodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a data processor; and anonline real-time multi-object tracking system, executable by the dataprocessor, the online real-time multi-object tracking system beingconfigured to perform an online real-time multi-object trackingoperation for autonomous vehicles, the online real-time multi-objecttracking operation being configured to: receive image frame data from atleast one camera associated with an autonomous vehicle; generatesimilarity data corresponding to a similarity between object data in aprevious image frame compared with object detection results from acurrent image frame; maintain a plurality of different templates foreach object in the object data, the plurality of different templates foreach object corresponding to different appearance features for eachobject as extracted from the object detection results; update theplurality of templates for each object based on the similarity data; usethe similarity data to generate data association results correspondingto a best matching between the object data in the previous image frameand the object detection results from the current image frame; causestate transitions in finite state machines for each object according tothe data association results; and provide as an output object trackingoutput data corresponding to the states of the finite state machines foreach object.
 2. The system of claim 1 being further configured to createa finite state machine for each new object detected in the objectdetection results, the finite state machine for each object representinga current object detection state of a plurality of possible objectdetection states for a corresponding object.
 3. The system of claim 1being further configured to generate the similarity data using motionfeature similarity and appearance feature similarity.
 4. The system ofclaim 1 being further configured to generate the similarity data usingmotion feature similarity based on a prediction of a Kalman filter and adetected object bounding box position.
 5. The system of claim 1 beingfurther configured to generate the data association results based onthree kinds of results: matched object data with object detectionresults, unmatched object data, and unmatched object detection results.6. The system of claim 1 wherein the finite state machines for eachobject include states from the group consisting of: initialized,tracked, lost, and removed.
 7. A method comprising: receiving imageframe data from at least one camera associated with an autonomousvehicle; generating similarity data corresponding to a similaritybetween object data in a previous image frame compared with objectdetection results from a current image frame; maintaining a plurality ofdifferent templates for each object in the object data, the plurality ofdifferent templates for each object corresponding to differentappearance features for each object as extracted from the objectdetection results; updating the plurality of templates for each objectbased on the similarity data; using the similarity data to generate dataassociation results corresponding to a best matching between the objectdata in the previous image frame and the object detection results fromthe current image frame; causing state transitions in finite statemachines for each object according to the data association results; andproviding as an output object tracking output data corresponding to thestates of the finite state machines for each object.
 8. The method ofclaim 7 including creating a finite state machine for each new objectdetected in the object detection results, the finite state machine foreach object representing a current object detection state of a pluralityof possible object detection states for a corresponding object.
 9. Themethod of claim 7 including generating the similarity data using motionfeature similarity and appearance feature similarity.
 10. The method ofclaim 7 including generating the similarity data using motion featuresimilarity based on a prediction of a Kalman filter and a detectedobject bounding box position.
 11. The method of claim 7 includinggenerating the data association results based on three kinds of results:matched object data with object detection results, unmatched objectdata, and unmatched object detection results.
 12. The method of claim 7wherein the finite state machines for each object include states fromthe group consisting of: initialized, tracked, lost, and removed.
 13. Anon-transitory machine-useable storage medium embodying instructionswhich, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to: receive imageframe data from at least one camera associated with an autonomousvehicle; generate similarity data corresponding to a similarity betweenobject data in a previous image frame compared with object detectionresults from a current image frame; maintain a plurality of differenttemplates for each object in the object data, the plurality of differenttemplates for each object corresponding to different appearance featuresfor each object as extracted from the object detection results; updatethe plurality of templates for each object based on the similarity data;use the similarity data to generate data association resultscorresponding to a best matching between the object data in the previousimage frame and the object detection results from the current imageframe; cause state transitions infinite state machines for each objectaccording to the data association results; and provide as an outputobject tracking output data corresponding to the states of the finitestate machines for each object.
 14. The non-transitory machine-useablestorage medium of claim 13 being further configured to create a finitestate machine for each new object detected in the object detectionresults, the finite state machine for each object representing a currentobject detection state of a plurality of possible object detectionstates for a corresponding object.
 15. The non-transitorymachine-useable storage medium of claim 13 being further configured togenerate the similarity data using motion feature similarity andappearance feature similarity.
 16. The non-transitory machine-useablestorage medium of claim 13 being further configured to generate thesimilarity data using motion feature similarity based on a prediction ofa Kalman filter and a detected object bounding box position.
 17. Thenon-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 13 being furtherconfigured to generate the data association results based on three kindsof results: matched object data with object detection results, unmatchedobject data, and unmatched object detection results.
 18. Thenon-transitory machine-useable storage medium of claim 13 wherein thefinite state machines for each object include states from the groupconsisting of: initialized, tracked, lost, and removed.